How to use ticket prices and prizes to improve your sales

Post 39 of Dream, create and make money in the arts.

Ticket prices and offers
I am off the firm belief that artists should be paid so if you have guest musicians, magicians or actors pay them something even if its enough to cover travel & their lunch tomorrow. Hence if its an appropriate model then you need to charge at the door. Plus you need to earn money as an artist, people pay for what they value. If you don’t value yourself how can you expect others too.

Of course there are always concessions tickets but try:

Early bird tickets, so cheaper if they book early,
The famous Edinburgh 2 for 1 specials on quiet nights eg Mondays.
Group & local school or college deals, think outside the box on who you can approach who may be a suitable audience for your area of expertise or subject matter.
Ticket concessions if they dress up as a character eg a Sound of Music themed night & they turn up as a min. I did a Russian Winter themed party & friends turned up in full Red Army outfits including the hats 😉 This breaks the ice with the audience & they then more easily become a community they follow you. It’s not just you they will come and see next time but the eclectic audience that you gather as well.

Obviously it’s an exhibition where you are hoping to sell your art or CDs then you may need to rethink a cover charge but you could  try to get a deal with the bar of the venue, so you get 20% of the bar or food takings over a certain amount of sales. That can wangle you more income.

Competitions & press giveaways  – Having prizes always helps .

BAC (Battersea Arts Centre) does tweet tickets competition so they get you to retweet a certain tweet, normally of a press night of a show & then they give away various free tickets plus the ‘winners’ also get a free glass of wine & some crisps beforehand.
This not only encourages people to retweet but also given they obviously are into their social media, they are more likely to blog or tweet about the show and the great treatment they had.
I won tickets to a show there called Mess, I retweeted to win tickets & subsequently tweeted that night about the show, mentioned it in a blog and also reviewed it. So those two free tickets they gave me as a prize they have got a lot of value from. Plus on an ongoing basis I watch their tweets and always retweet their shows as I have become a ‘tribe’ member as Seth Godin would say.

Doing competitions radio, online such as Facebook & Twitter campaigns and even local press who also have websites & forums really helps get the word out.
Maybe find a ‘influencer’, bloggers who are big in your niche & ask them to review your book or event. Sending then free copies or tickets, CDs to give away , or maybe you can agree to do a cartoon of the winner or sing them a song. You can obviously go crazy here from djing in their home to writing them a poem but the best prizes are unique, just look at Kickstarter for how they monetize special limited editions & posters to raise money.

The more you can think outside the ‘box’ on competitions and free tickets the better. If you have a butterfly design get your audience to Instagram a butterfly they have seen.
Look at your flyer, logo, image & show title & see how you can use them as giveaways – see these blogs.

Maximum Impact your flyer

Cross promote your event with iconic images

Kickstarter Lessons on limited edition merchandise or prizes
About this series – Becoming a Successful Creative – The Business of Creativity covering all the angles and issues of putting on a show, exhibition or event to showcase your art

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This is a series of daily blogs for you on how to dream up, build, market and sell a creative event, gig, festival, book launch, cabaret night, exhibition of rude plastic cupcakes or whatever creatively inspires you. It is time to create and put on that play about your family, a series of drawings about hedgehogs, the album you have talked about making or the short film you always wanted to write and make. You can read the series in order  Part One or just pick and choose a topic that interests you.